


Use Words Like Forever

by lady_ragnell



Series: Till the End of Today [2]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-03
Updated: 2012-01-03
Packaged: 2017-10-28 20:16:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/311767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lady_ragnell/pseuds/lady_ragnell
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the world is saved, Arthur and Merlin have to figure out what comes next.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Use Words Like Forever

**Author's Note:**

> Title from David Ford's "Song for the Road."

“I’m hungry,” Merlin whispers against his mouth once the sun has set and their nest of blankets gets too cold to stay in. “And I don’t think there’s anything edible in my flat right now.”

Arthur sits up and fumbles in his pocket until he finds his phone. It’s later than he thought, and he has eight missed calls since he turned his phone off an hour before the world didn’t end. “We’ll go out for dinner. I promised, didn’t I?”

Merlin smiles and ducks his head. “I don’t … I don’t scare you?”

Arthur thinks of Merlin’s eyes the color of liquid gold, and the way the asteroid had just dissolved into nothing because Merlin willed it hard enough. He probably should be scared, since his experiences with Morgana and her dreams didn’t quite prepare him for this, but Merlin’s eyes are still red from crying and he can’t seem to keep his hands off Arthur and he saved the fucking world, so there isn’t much room to be scared. “If you scared me, I wouldn’t still be kissing you. Come on, let’s go get some food. The least I can do after you saved the world is buy you dinner.”

“I should call my mum first,” says Merlin, and Arthur looks again at his missed calls. One from Gwen, three from Morgana, two from Sophia, and one each from Leon and Lance. None from his father, who by all rights should have called to gloat about being right by now. He won’t think about that quite yet.

“I’ll call my sister as well,” he says instead, and starts picking up the blankets and pillows that they’ve been wrapped up in all day.

Merlin laughs, a little nervous but mostly the kind of warm sound that Arthur wants to wrap himself in forever. “I didn’t know you had a sister. I don’t even know your last name.”

“It’s Pendragon.” Arthur watches Merlin’s eyes go wide with realization and helps him gather up the rest of the blankets before following him down the stairs. “My sister is Morgana. Will your mum know it was you who did this?”

“She might wonder. I don’t know. I’m … I’m powerful, I suppose, but nobody really knows how much I can do.” He peers behind them like he could still see the sky even though they’re inside. “I guess today was the answer.”

When they get inside Merlin’s flat, Merlin gives him one last smile and disappears into his bedroom. Arthur takes the opportunity to call Morgana back. She answers on the first ring. “You found him.”

She’s trying to sound cool and worldly, but Arthur knows her better than that. “If you’d known about him this morning, you wouldn’t have been panicking like that,” he says. “Are you and Gwen okay?”

“We fell asleep for a few minutes this afternoon, and I saw him then, if you must know. I didn’t want to get your hopes up in case it was just a real dream. Gwen and I are okay, though. Relieved, of course.” She pauses. “Tell him … tell him thank you from us, could you? I doubt many people will be able to acknowledge what he did, but at least we know. What’s his name?”

“Merlin,” Arthur admits, and lets her laugh and then explain to Gwen what she’s laughing about in the background. “I’ll tell him.”

“You should come visit us tomorrow,” Morgana says.

“I imagine Father is expecting me back at work tomorrow.”

She pauses. “You can take two days off in a row, Arthur. It will take a day or two for the world to get back to normal anyway. Besides, you can sort Sophia out and move out of the flat.”

“Why should I move out? She’s the one who left me.”

“Because you have Merlin’s flat to go to, and she’s going to try to get you back.”

Arthur looks around Merlin’s messy, tiny flat with its star maps and unwashed dishes and view of the dodgy end of town and thinks about telling Morgana that he met Merlin less than twelve hours ago and won’t be moving in with him yet no matter what she says, even if he feels at home here. Instead, he keeps his tone as dry as possible when he answers her. “Just how much did you dream during your little nap earlier?”

“More than you could possibly imagine, little brother.” Gwen is laughing in the background again. “And if you don’t move in with him right away, you will have to figure out something to do about Sophia.”

“Not tonight,” he says firmly. “Tonight I am taking Merlin out for dinner wherever he wants, since he just saved the world and deserves that and more.”

Merlin comes out of his bedroom, smiling and wearing a nicer shirt than he was earlier. “We’ll see you tomorrow, Arthur,” says Morgana, and hangs up.

Arthur flips his phone closed. “My sister says thank you. She dreams about the future sometimes, so she knew.”

Instead of asking about it, Merlin just gives him a thoughtful look and nods. “She should be thanking you,” he says a moment later, and then “We should get going” before Arthur can muster a response around the lump in his throat.

It takes them half an hour to find a restaurant that’s open and not full, since what seems like half the population of the city is still running around, talking about the news report that says the asteroid didn’t just miss the Earth, it seems to have disappeared completely. “Out of curiosity,” says Arthur when they finally get to a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant that Merlin assures him sells delicious chips, “what actually happened to it?”

“I don’t know. I just wanted it to go away, and it … went.” Merlin shrugs, and nobody who looks that sheepish and harmless should have that much power. There ought to be a rule. “Really, I don’t freak you out? Or whatever?”

Arthur thinks about meeting Merlin in the morning and how worn and tired he looked, like the world ending was just the final straw, and wonders if perhaps some of that is why Merlin is so wary of believing Arthur might be fine with his magic. He doesn’t ask. He just takes Merlin’s hand, completely ignoring the waitress as she comes over. “You don’t. You’re amazing.”

Merlin turns pink and scrambles to place his order with the waitress, who is eyeing them like she doesn’t know quite what to make of them.

They talk until the restaurant closes, in between fielding calls from friends and family, although Arthur presses “ignore” every time Sophia’s name shows up on his display. At the end, he walks Merlin to his door and gets ready to leave; he suspects they both need a bit of space before they tumble into bed. “I want your number,” he says firmly when it looks like Merlin might disengage without giving it to him.

“You said earlier that you would call way too soon,” comments Merlin as he puts his number into the phone. “Is that still true?”

Arthur takes the phone back and kisses him. “I guess you’ll just have to see, won’t you?” The nervousness on Merlin’s face makes him want to give reassurances right away, but it’s worth the happiness in his voice when Arthur calls five minutes after Merlin shut the door to his building behind him. “Is this too soon?”

“Definitely not,” says Merlin, and Arthur talks to him the whole way home.


End file.
